ZE, nice base. perspective drawing too, very nice. that "Alien" alien is funny peeking out the corner like that. oh, and i think editing one post would be a bit harder to find when the pages get longer.

"Burning propose. Etched forever in the mind as slow curves pulled upward into spikes. Dark wings framing an almost human death skull. Almost, but for the fangs of the beast. A creast for killers. Find it and you find the chalice, and the dark wing. Only five years remain."

ZE, nice base. perspective drawing too, very nice. that "Alien" alien is funny peeking out the corner like that. oh, and i think editing one post would be a bit harder to find when the pages get longer.

Weeeeeeeeell... one could argue we never had an Art leader, just an unrealistic guy who did very little (well, to hinder progress he did a lot!). Nowadays there's hardly what you could call a team anymore thanks to our leadership most of the people are gone, no programmers, no artists, no sound guys, just a couple of us CTD wackos ROFL well, not me either anyhow

I always liked your artwork its a shame it never met our "leader"'s ridiculous standards

o. "that" leader. heh. well he does have ridiculous standards but his work are great so i suppose he knows his stuff. not to mention his imagination for how it should look is so much better than i could ever came up with. i mean growing things. in my head it's all guts and tentacles but in his mind, crystals. that's really out of the box. and i do like his imagination more than mine. too bad after so long, i lost touch. maybe one day when money is not a need, then i'd have time to try out some more.

ctd wackos are great. been reading more than creating lately anyway. and it seems there wasn't any comments for my stories so kinda lost motivation and lost the storyline. ah well. have to get busy working anyway.

I recall reading your stories in the past. Then I got extra busy with university and I didn't even login in here. As you implied, people have priorities :\

Concerning the "standards" and the leadership, their management scheme COULD work under other circumstances. It didn't work here because we didn't have a lot of participating members. Over-management even worked as a deterrent.

Personal Opinion: Nevertheless, the project comes first, so whenever someone joins, he SHOULD be given enough rights to have the freedom he needs. And create whatever he likes.

o. "that" leader. heh. well he does have ridiculous standards but his work are great so i suppose he knows his stuff. not to mention his imagination for how it should look is so much better than i could ever came up with. i mean growing things. in my head it's all guts and tentacles but in his mind, crystals. that's really out of the box. and i do like his imagination more than mine. too bad after so long, i lost touch. maybe one day when money is not a need, then i'd have time to try out some more.

ctd wackos are great. been reading more than creating lately anyway. and it seems there wasn't any comments for my stories so kinda lost motivation and lost the storyline. ah well. have to get busy working anyway.

Oh please do finish your story's, I liked them if no one else did. As a matter of fact I saved them and fixed all the grammar mistakes. I have all them if you want them nothings has changed but the grammar mistakes. It will be a sad day when your story page gets deleted by being outdated. Of course, if the xenocide project is still around by then. [sarcasm tag add here]

P.S. Is there still even a leader or art leader? All this talk about "ridiculous leaders" has got me a little confused.

Edited by Zero Energy, 03 October 2009 - 01:32 PM.

"Burning propose. Etched forever in the mind as slow curves pulled upward into spikes. Dark wings framing an almost human death skull. Almost, but for the fangs of the beast. A creast for killers. Find it and you find the chalice, and the dark wing. Only five years remain."

Typically, there are. Practically, they haven't showed up for years and they haven't posted any work for ever more. Even the programming leader (the only active developer) hasn't posted anything for months.

well, here's a little something something for UI stuff. once it runs, click inside to focus on Flash (swf) and hit left and right for more. Look at top right corner.

Yes, the second version is pretty appealing - at least to me... What do you other say?Could you do a real version of this (a patch for the svn would be optimal)?

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

I do not know how to make a patch, but I could give you the png to be replaced with. tho i had to say I didn't know the rest of the smaller buttons were using the same section of the image. it looked odd stretched like that but I couldn't figure out how to change the other buttons. I tried to tweak the imageset but it kept giving me error when I tried to run the game.

I just found out you could resize the notice windows and everything inside it was also resized. button get fatter and such. I would suggest the next implementation should take the resizing out of notice windows and all that. and the [x] on top right since it doesn't do anything. I kept clicking but nothing happened. Either take it out or when click, link to cancel.

Also, I have no idea how to change the fonts within the game so this new png still doesn't do much without tweaking the texts.

Edit: I wonder if the sidebar can be animated like my flash file? basically drop out then come back in with the new menus. The buttons I did with flash were moved with codes so it could work in the game too I think.

Edit2: I attached a new swf file for the animation query above. Click between Base and Geoscape to see it in action. I think the Base sidebar UI made sense this way. I also added Manufacture to Geoscape and X-Net can be access at top right on any section. Also, Buy/Sell should be together instead of separate. The base info I put above the buttons with a "More" where it will go to Base Information section.

Is there any chance you can improve on my draft icon sprite sheet for the geoScape (attached)?

I really like you sidebar design by the way (i'd vote option 2 as well). And it got me thinking, would the geoscape do better with a horizontal menu bar rather than a vertical one? Take the example of this other classic game. Top left can be Date/Time and time advance controls, top left funds.

Bottom left can be a info panel for flashcard info on what ever is being currently hovered over. Middle can be base icon strip (like in the original) and then some small icons for the main functions

well, before I improve or destroy anything, maybe you can explain what each of those icons supposed to be?

I quite like the menu to stay with the classic X-Com at the right. Though it does not have to stay with, but an idea popped out. What if the menu can be "minimized" to the side and showing only icons? Basically similar to the Adobe products where you can slide the side menu in having wider area of workspace. Then again though that wouldn't really do much since there isn't really much workspace needed for either geoscape or base layout.

I think the battlescape menu can be changed for the better though. If we are to follow the original then it should have been horizontal at the bottom anyway but I am thinking of something completely different. Say a minimap on top right (minimizeable) showing troop positions and explored layouts, beside it would be zoom in/out and rotate left/right and/or yaw up/down icons, icon bar on top left for option, inventory, etc, and troop icons on bottom left. Action would be automatized such as when you left-click on a target, it would pop-up [No Action] if nothing is equiped, or Throw, Auto, Snap, [Aim: -- TU] and gray out options that required more than available TU. Right click on ground or target would have a secondary weapon menu appear such as Scan, Panic, Control, or [Throw Grenade: -- TU], etc. Clicking on troop would select the troop as usual and right-click on selected troop would have Drop or Inventory pop up, etc. Clicking on not selected troop would have options such as throw or stun or something along the line. Another idea just appear as I type, maybe if a friendly fire occurred on command, the targeted troop would automatically shoot back if there is enough TU. I have always thought that the X-Com troops are too dumb anyway since if you force shoot them, they never seem to shoot back. a bunch of ideas but limited to no one programming it. if possible I would like a click-drag function for map control too. much easier in a sense. maybe center click?

I just played the battlescape scene and it's hard. And slow too. Found these red slugs and it killed 4 of my troops so easily while auto fire from all four to one target with the assault rifle didn't do a thing to it. Aborted mission. I also found out that in the X-Net, the Laser weapons did not have damage points. TU yes, damage no. I don't know if it does have one in battlescape since I haven't produced them yet. I think those should be CTD work, right? I mean to write in the damage points.

Edit: how do you use those icon? I mean where do I put it to show it in game? or do I have to decompile and recompile something? also how do I change the font? I know it's sprite made but I have no idea how to edit it.

well, before I improve or destroy anything, maybe you can explain what each of those icons supposed to be?

I quite like the menu to stay with the classic X-Com at the right. Though it does not have to stay with, but an idea popped out. What if the menu can be "minimized" to the side and showing only icons? Basically similar to the Adobe products where you can slide the side menu in having wider area of workspace. Then again though that wouldn't really do much since there isn't really much workspace needed for either geoscape or base layout.

I think the battlescape menu can be changed for the better though. If we are to follow the original then it should have been horizontal at the bottom anyway but I am thinking of something completely different. Say a minimap on top right (minimizeable) showing troop positions and explored layouts, beside it would be zoom in/out and rotate left/right and/or yaw up/down icons, icon bar on top left for option, inventory, etc, and troop icons on bottom left. Action would be automatized such as when you left-click on a target, it would pop-up [No Action] if nothing is equiped, or Throw, Auto, Snap, [Aim: -- TU] and gray out options that required more than available TU. Right click on ground or target would have a secondary weapon menu appear such as Scan, Panic, Control, or [Throw Grenade: -- TU], etc. Clicking on troop would select the troop as usual and right-click on selected troop would have Drop or Inventory pop up, etc. Clicking on not selected troop would have options such as throw or stun or something along the line. Another idea just appear as I type, maybe if a friendly fire occurred on command, the targeted troop would automatically shoot back if there is enough TU. I have always thought that the X-Com troops are too dumb anyway since if you force shoot them, they never seem to shoot back. a bunch of ideas but limited to no one programming it. if possible I would like a click-drag function for map control too. much easier in a sense. maybe center click?

I just played the battlescape scene and it's hard. And slow too. Found these red slugs and it killed 4 of my troops so easily while auto fire from all four to one target with the assault rifle didn't do a thing to it. Aborted mission. I also found out that in the X-Net, the Laser weapons did not have damage points. TU yes, damage no. I don't know if it does have one in battlescape since I haven't produced them yet. I think those should be CTD work, right? I mean to write in the damage points.

Edit: how do you use those icon? I mean where do I put it to show it in game? or do I have to decompile and recompile something? also how do I change the font? I know it's sprite made but I have no idea how to edit it.

I guess I could have put some more detail in that, i was getting a flea in my ear at the time from the wife to go get off the computer!

The icon's are to be the geoscape base, ufo, interceptor icons (re: the Geo Hudwork i've been doing) . I'd been doing some line based icons, but the one's you have in your .swf files are much better. So I was wondering if you could draft a set of geoscape planet icons for me to work with?

These are the icons that I can remember from the game (and how they looked originally):

You both have very good ideas, keep 'em coming. About the Damage of the LASER rifle, the item stats can be edited in http://svn.projectxe...Schema/item.xml - but as you can see all the damage points - even for the Laser weapons - are in this XML. Maybe there is a small error in the code interpreting the file?

Edited by Mad, 19 October 2009 - 10:34 AM.

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

PezzA: "but could use a helping hand as I can't draw a straight line (even in paintbrush!)." select paint brush, click, hold shift, drag mouse. unless you are not using photoshop then I have no idea.

I draw most things in vector format, like the .swf file, the convert it to raster if necessary. I'll try to spit out better base icons than the original or the ones i did in the flash demo I did. That was no good by long shot. Though if we could make the craft icons as an arrow like that an point towards destination, that'd be amazing. As for the ufo, I was thinking instead of an X, it'd be similar to the one I did in the flash, rounded. heck i'd make a mini ufo disc icon if that's acceptable. then make a landing strut for landed ufo and a crack disc for a down ufo. that'd be interesting. anyway, what's the maximum size for each icon? I'd prefer bigger I suppose to get in more details but if the details get lost within the game anyway then it's not worth it. 64x64?

Not gonna do it now though. it's sleep time and work when I wake, but maybe I can spit something out in the next 24 hours.

Mad: I saw the xml file just now before your post and figured it must be programming errors. Though can't fix it on my end as I have no idea what or how to do it. And again I ask, how do I change the font to something better or at least realign the font to sit better on the buttons?

Also, is it possible to create a different button for other menus? Like if you use my png I posted before, the timeline buttons looked awkward and the main menu, as well as options and other windowed buttons looked really bad stretched like that.

Suggestion for next implementation: TURN THE VOLUME DOWN! Everytime I start the game it gave me a start. I have to load quickly, go to option, and turn the volume down from there. and I was at minimum volume bar at that. Maybe don't even start with a music, or at least a volume bar at first screen. Problem is, the volume return to default whenever I return to the game and I have to redo those all again. Worse is when you select a new game, then you have to make a base first before you can even get the option window open.

And again I ask, how do I change the font to something better or at least realign the font to sit better on the buttons?

I'm sorry, the reason why nobody seems to have answered it until now is, because you don't. You'll have to download the sources and exchange the Font File (Brave new era) to another one, plus rewrite the source where it loads the fontfile and then re-compile the game. So I guess it would be easier for you to just look for a font (it has to bee copyright-free or under a CC or similar license!) and post it here.

Also, is it possible to create a different button for other menus? Like if you use my png I posted before, the timeline buttons looked awkward and the main menu, as well as options and other windowed buttons looked really bad stretched like that.

Impossible is nothing, however that would be a question best directed at the PRG department - or at PezzA

Suggestion for next implementation: TURN THE VOLUME DOWN! Everytime I start the game it gave me a start. I have to load quickly, go to option, and turn the volume down from there. and I was at minimum volume bar at that. Maybe don't even start with a music, or at least a volume bar at first screen. Problem is, the volume return to default whenever I return to the game and I have to redo those all again. Worse is when you select a new game, then you have to make a base first before you can even get the option window open.

No reason to shout. This is interesting - actually this never came up as a problem - you could just lower your system volume? Or you could ask PezzA nicely if he would like to make a patch showing a volume slider when you open the game first time. Options will be saved sooner or later - it just wasn't top priority until now.

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

No reason to shout. This is interesting - actually this never came up as a problem - you could just lower your system volume? Or you could ask PezzA nicely if he would like to make a patch showing a volume slider when you open the game first time. Options will be saved sooner or later - it just wasn't top priority until now.

Also, is it possible to create a different button for other menus? Like if you use my png I posted before, the timeline buttons looked awkward and the main menu, as well as options and other windowed buttons looked really bad stretched like that.

I don't fully understand what you mean by having the different buttons, do you want to have different 'skins' for different buttons to better suit their use/placement? I should imagine it would be possible, however, I've not touched the CeGUI stuff in detail so couldn't say how hard it would be. I'll have a look into it and get back to you.

I would post a build for you, but it gives me a compiler warning "Type or Namespace "GameOptions" could not be found"...

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

I would post a build for you, but it gives me a compiler warning "Type or Namespace "GameOptions" could not be found"...

You need to add source\model\Gameoptions.cs to the project. I had some geohud stuff pending on the project file so didn't add it into the patch.

Ah, thanks for the info - actually I think I read it in the "commits" thread but completely forgot about it, sorry for that. Anyway, now I get even more errors - now about GameOptions.cs: "Namespace "ProjectXenocide.Model" already contains a definition for "GameOptions" " and "a using clause has to preceed all elements declared in namespace"

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

i think i can also draw with code if necessary. though i m not sure which takes up more resources.

just played the battlescape again. dang hard. lost 6/10 with only 4 standing in the end. not having grenades or medikit could do that. the raptors are dang hard to kill (tho I suppose the red slug model is just a replacement atm). The first ones I saw and killed are the raptors. then I was expecting the morlocks, tho in the end turned out to be satyrians, were as hard to kill and almost smile when they die with single hit. satisfying I tell you.

in anycase, I think battlescape will need lots of improvement. discarding the model making for the moment, the map is way too big since it's mostly a maze. Takes 4-5 turns to see something and takes 5min to move all my troops. the troops selection themselves are sometimes too confusing. Should really make the box to change color when landed on units. and the targeting is a problem too. I kept forgetting you have to face the target first before you can fire or else you'd have to waste a bullet since I haven't found out how to cancel attacks.... now that I think of it, I didn't hit "escape"... would that have worked? in any case, another problem is the map is zoomed in too close. and a quick selection of troops would be nice instead of checking one by one to see which one still has TU left and there's no name to be found anywhere. a hover text showing the stat and name?

I think I'll try to make some idea for the Soldier screen and battlescape UI when I have more time. The buy/sell screen also should be combined. maybe a slider base like Apocalypse would be a good addition for selling things since I got tired of clicking 100+ times to sell unneeded items. The buy part can be just the same but with higher jump than more/less. maybe +10?

I'd say the icons need to be half the size the are. I can scale them in game, but is it best if they are drawn to be half the size?

Also, if you look at the sprite sheet I made from what you provded (and forgive my butchery of this, i'm useless with GFX packages)IconSpriteMap.png26.52K21 downloadsWhat i've tried to do is split each icon into an inner section and outer section. When you hover the icon it will spin around the inner icon. So for the yellow base icon i used, the 'X' part stays still, and the rest rotates around it when you mouse over it.

I don't know why the file was patched several times, because actually I was quite sure I deleted the one from my previous attempts, but apparently not. So, build succeeded, thanks PezzA - it works great, however, the xcomufo server is pretty slow at the moment, so I have problems uploading the file. When done, it will be available at http://www.projectxe..._SoundPatch.exe

As for the icons - Love it already - just make it a little smaller, and maybe at some point you could allow for movement in the UFO icons (spinning/smoking UFO... *dream* )

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

I'll have to see this in-game, but I think these new icons are missing the "neon-ish" touch the icons before had (especially the ones in your flash animation (2nd page) ) - I thought that was pretty cool.

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

huh. well I can make a different set of icon where the second frame would be a neon effect in it instead of rotation effect. lemme see what I can come up with.

Hi! stuck doing my daddy daycare duties at the moment! I think these look great, and will hook them up soon. For the neon versions, these can be set to do the blinking part of the animation, as you would have seen mine doing on the geohud patch. So of you could do the same again, but with a highlight, that will be great. I'll do my best to get a patch out as soon as poss!

huh. well I can make a different set of icon where the second frame would be a neon effect in it instead of rotation effect. lemme see what I can come up with.

Well, I don't know how that would look, I'm not sure... maybe woul dbe interesting, but no, actually I meant: rotating icons with neon. But maybe that would be going overboard with eye candy - I just thought when I saw your flash: wow, neon... And in the later versions you didn't really go pastel, but still, it was not as neon as before... So maybe you could come up with neon, and when clicked rotating (basically modify your last draft to be more neonish)? As I see it that would be the same as PezzA asked, I just didn't read his post before I answered to yours.. Sorry. So, what I could imagine very nicely is to have three steps, but I don't know if this is within reason. First step: inactive(!) (otherwise I think this is too much for the user) darker, smaller, pastel/opaque icons for when the icon is on the far side of the globe. Second step: clickable lighter, larger, neonish, icons for when the icon is on the globe-side facing the user, and last and third step: rotating/smoking/whattheheckanimation of the second step icons as mouse-over effect when icons are on the user side of the globe and the mouse hovers over them. This way you would not miss anything going on on the far side of the globe, but it would not interfere with your tasks on the globe side you're facing atm, and you could easily distinguish between stuff on your side and the other side, plus our all inner geek would be satisfied by the eye candy at mouse-over.

Anyway, however nice the eye-candy is, or at least we deem it to be, there could still be/there are probably people who think this is BS. So maybe as a far goal we should think about integrating a dialog in the settings menu that allows choosing a HUD style - either the simple style we had until now, or the eye-candy new HUD. I guess this can't be too difficult, since most of the code is already there, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Edited by Mad, 21 October 2009 - 10:00 AM.

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

In addition gu35s, could you grab a Top-view screenshot of XC-1? It's in blender format, which I can't operate (interface is confusing, and I don't have time to look into it ). Only if it wouldn't be much trouble, thanks!

In addition gu35s, could you grab a Top-view screenshot of XC-1? It's in blender format, which I can't operate (interface is confusing, and I don't have time to look into it ). Only if it wouldn't be much trouble, thanks!

Well, I would have to agree, it would be great to use shots of in-game models (or even in-game models) for the icons, but I don't know if this'll be good for the UI experience?

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

if this is gonna be used for geohud icons though it'd be more interesting if each ship has their own icon.

That is what kafros and I mentioned before - it would really be awesome to have a designated icon for every ship (thats what I meant with "use in-game models"), but apart from the issue with confusing the player, I guess that would need some extra code - especially for the UFOs, since at first you can only differenciate between very small, small, medium and large UFOs, but once you have the Hyperwave Decoder you know exactly what type of UFO it is, and at that moment it would be neat to have an icon displaying exactly that UFO... I must admit, I always dreamed about really having a geoscape like this: http://www.projectxe...artgeo9-800.jpg with flowing around 3D models - but I guess this is still too demanding, code-wise and CPU/GFX power-wise - especially if you have 20 UFOs flying around. Or is it?

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

In addition gu35s, could you grab a Top-view screenshot of XC-1? It's in blender format, which I can't operate (interface is confusing, and I don't have time to look into it ). Only if it wouldn't be much trouble, thanks!

Well, I would have to agree, it would be great to use shots of in-game models (or even in-game models) for the icons, but I don't know if this'll be good for the UI experience?

I've put in a patch that uses the first set of 16 icons, and tries to address some of the feedback so far.

Try it and see what you think. (by the way, the Terror icon specifically i thought was fantastic!)Terror.jpg70.49K18 downloads

Regarding, the point above about whether or not to show the ship models, the craft specific model could be displayed with the info card information underneath the time buttons. This would keep the geoScape simpler to read. I think we definitely should be seeing the models as part of the intercept dialog.

Regarding, the point above about whether or not to show the ship models, the craft specific model could be displayed with the info card information underneath the time buttons. This would keep the geoScape simpler to read. I think we definitely should be seeing the models as part of the intercept dialog.

That sounds like a very reasonable and good idea!

Keep smiling while dying

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

Of course I have gone mad with power! It would be completely ridiculous to go mad without power!And no, this is not a quote from the Simpson's movie, I want it on paper, that I actually wrote that quite some time before the movie came out.

"Burning propose. Etched forever in the mind as slow curves pulled upward into spikes. Dark wings framing an almost human death skull. Almost, but for the fangs of the beast. A creast for killers. Find it and you find the chalice, and the dark wing. Only five years remain."